An Action Plan for Improving Mediocre or Stagnant Student Achievement

Although all of the schools in the target school system adhere to a school improvement process, achievement scores remain mediocre or stagnant within the overseas school in Italy that serves children of United States armed service members. To address this problem, this study explored the target school\u27s improvement process to discover how different stakeholder groups viewed that process. The aim of these investigations was to determine if different stakeholder groups\u27 competing values hindered the school\u27s improvement efforts. The conceptual framework of this study was Schein\u27s organizational culture theory along with recent findings by Creemers and Kyriakides that show that school culture must be addressed in order for a school to improve. The research design was a single case study. Four different stakeholder groups were interviewed, two school improvement committee meetings were observed, and seven school-improvement related documents were examined. ATLASti qualitative analysis software was used following Hatch\u27s typological analysis method. Two major themes, Teachers versus Technocrats and Pre-Fourth Way, revealed the importance of school culture. The recommended project, a Networked Learning Community (NLC), was designed to build a positive culture by promoting collective responsibility, empowering innovation, and building capacity. This study will promote positive social change by demonstrating how school improvement occurs and by providing a research-based plan for a NLC that can help shift the trajectory of the static moderate achievement levels in the case study school and the target school system

Modernist Women in Three Acts: The Stage for Political Protest

In this essay, I will draw upon Katherine Mansfield\u27s New Zealand Sh011stories, Bliss (1918), The Woman at the Store (1912), Je Ne Parle Pas Francais (1918), George Bernard Shaw\u27s play Mrs. Warren\u27s Profession (1893), and Virginia Woolf\u27s extended essay A Room of One \u27s Own (1929), to defend Jeffreys\u27s idea that lesbianism was, in many cases, nothing more than a bond of friendship between two women - a private experience that took on a different meaning in the public eye. Additionally, I wish to support Gubar\u27s notion that gender norms frequently existed secondarily to the importance of women gaining more liberty through their political achievements. While Newton identifies valid concerns about the influence of social and historical processes continuously altering the environment in which women lived, the more important aspect of her paper seems to suggest that the activities in which women participated to make themselves equal to men, namely cross-dressing, resulted in overly prescribed definitions of lesbianism, simply due to women\u27s behavior or appearance - their social not their self-identity. Additionally, in this essay, I will use Jeffreys and Gubar, Mansfield, Shaw, and Woolf, to demonstrate that the New Woman utilized the social, economic, and political constraints inherent to her environment to achieve her own political goals. In sum, I wish to argue that the categories of female identity that caused such controversies during the modernist era did not always reflect altered attitudes about sexuality or self-identity. Rather, these categories served 4 frequently as social and political statements about women seeking voice and empowerment through alternative means

Covid 19: Impacts on teaching, learning and progression for A Levels in Mathematics.

We report on ways that teaching and learning for mathematics A Levels, studied pre-university in England (by students aged 16-18), was disrupted by Covid19 in Summer 2020. Findings are contextualised within teacher and student accounts of the aspirational and time-pressured nature of these reformed qualifications. We explore the nature of engagement with mathematics achieved by year 12 and 13 students during lockdown, and the preparedness of 2019-20 year 11 and 13 students for progression into A Level/Higher Education respectively. Our findings derive from the third year of a four-year study (2017/18 to 2020/21) exploring enactment and impact of reformed mathematics A Levels, and efficacy of associated Pearson resources and assessments. Research tools were adapted to focus on impacts of Covid19. We present a snapshot (March to July 2020), of teachers and students looking to the future in a time of uncertainty and rapid change

‘Hard to focus, difficult to learn’: Covid19 Impacts on teaching, learning and progression for A Levels in Mathematics

We explore year 13 (age 17-18) student accounts of how Covid19 has impacted their learning for pre-university mathematics qualifications in England. Findings derive from the final year of a four-year study (2017/18 to 2020/21) exploring enactment and impact of reformed mathematics ‘A Levels’, and efficacy of associated Pearson resources and assessments. Research tools were adapted to focus on impacts of Covid19. In this cohort’s first year of A level (2019/20), teaching and learning was severely disrupted. Teachers anticipated significant, wide-ranging learning gaps as students progressed to year 13. Using data from Autumn 2020 and Spring 2021 we analyse student accounts of how continued disruptions to teaching and learning have impacted them. Variable access to teachers, barriers to collaborative work, and challenges of remote or reduced contact working have resulted in reduced depth and breadth of learning. Additionally, many students reported negative impacts on mathematical confidence and wider mental health

Teaching and learning for ‘moving goal-posts’: reformed A Levels in mathematics

Reformed English pre-university mathematics ‘A levels’ feature enhanced content and renewed focus on mathematical reasoning and problem solving. Related assessments, at scale from 2019, had negligible piloting, and preparation time for resources and teaching was pressured, with teachers/assessors typically having little experience of teaching/assessing for the renewed foci. We used an institutional ethnographic lens to study the first 3 years’ enactment from the leading awarding organisation, and impact on students’ learning, affect and pathways. We followed students and teachers in a fairly representative sample of 46 classes, drawing on termly data collection. Initial ‘specimen assessments’ were largely considered valid and accessible; however, we evidence insecurity due to perceptions of ‘moving goal posts’. Early final assessments were perceived as significantly more demanding than predecessor comparators and of limited reliability for many students. We analyse contribution to knowledge around introduction of curriculum aspirations at this level and discuss ways to address identified challenges

Recovery Following Acute Pontine Hemorrhage

Massive pontine hemorrhage does not always carry a fatal prognosis. A case report is presented in which many of the features usually associated with a fatal outcome were seen: severe disturbance of consciousness with early onset of coma, decerebrate posturing, systolic BP ranging from 200 mm Hg to 250 mm Hg, and hypopnea. Intensive supportive therapy was instituted during the critical phase, and the patient recovered. Electrophysiological studies helped to define the neurological deficit

How has the relationship between parental education and child outcomes changed in Australia since the 1980s?

Published version of the paper reproduced here with permission from the publisherThis paper examines how the relationship between parents’ educational achievement (a marker of their socio‑economic status) and children’s early developmental outcomes has evolved in Australia since the early 1980s. The specific focus of this paper is whether the gradient in children’s early developmental outcomes by parents’ education has changed since the 1980s. A comparative analysis of two surveys is undertaken that follows Australian cohorts of children through their early years – the Australian Temperament Project (following children born in Victoria in the early 1980s) and the Longitudinal Study of Australian Children (following a representative sample of children born in Australia in 1999). The analysis shows that the relationship between parental education and children’s early developmental outcomes does not in general appear to have changed greatly over the years. The gradient associated with behaviour difficulties, persistence in behaviour difficulties over time, and in reading skills has either remained the same or strengthened somewhat, while the gradient associated with social skills has weakened. The paper concludes with a discussion of issues that might explain these trends